To our readers:
In these past few months, members of the St. Joe’s community have been forced into difficult conversations about racism on our campus.
These conversations are ones we should have started long before being prompted by the racial slur incident reported last semester. Though some might have hoped that the uproar over that incident would have died down by now in favor of business as usual, The Hawk Staff
believes it is our journalistic and civic responsibility to ensure these conversations are the beginning of a longer and more sustained conversation about racism, inequality and privilege.
All semester we have consulted with people of color on campus, including St. Joe’s faculty, staff, students and members of our own staff. These conversations produced a range of topics that we will address in our stories over the course of the next four issues of The Hawk. They include institutional issues such as the retention of students of color, the use of students of color in promotional material to push a narrative of racial diversity at St. Joe’s, the lack of people of color in administration, faculty and staff, and the experiences of athletes of color and people of color at a predominantly white institution.
We will also take an in-depth look at the roots of racism at St. Joe’s. These stories include an in-depth look at university yearbooks and newspaper coverage from as far back as 1928, uncovering, among other things, our history with blackface and minstrelsy. We will write profiles about some of the first students and student athletes of color. Additionally, our work will examine how people of color are treated on Hawk Hill, exploring the racial experiences of current students, faculty and staff.
In preparation for this series, we looked inward and acknowledged that as a predominately white staff, it is important that we report these stories alongside and with feedback from people of color. With that in mind, our Consulting Editor, who identifies as black, will assist in the editing of content for the “Confronting Racism” series.
Looking inward has also meant confronting our own racist acts in our role as a media organization on campus. We have in the past used racist language in stories. We have not always reached out enough to actively recruit students of color. Students of color have criticized the mainly white lens that The Hawk has used to cover the campus, and they have been right.
As we have committed to our leadership role in addressing issues of race on campus, some current students and alumni have commented on our social media platforms and website that we are spending too much time focusing on race, often remarking that we need to “get over this.” A 2000 opinions piece in The Hawk, written by Hawk Staf, made the same argument.
There is no “getting over” what it means to be a person of color on Hawk Hill, and The Hawk will not stop covering issues of racism, from our past and in our present. Our future depends on it. We cover these stories with hope for progress.
We believe it is on us, the members of The Hawk community, to acknowledge the systematic racism that exists at St. Joe’s in order to work towards truly creating a more representative and diverse Hawk Hill. We must arm ourselves and our readers with stories and information that will help us all do this.
Sincerely,
Ana Faguy ’19
Editor in Chief
